Uncovering Yamamoto Takeshi
by snitchygirl
Summary: Yamamoto Takeshi. A handsome and skillful baseball player. Easily approachable, but there's not much known about his private life. Can a newbie reporter uncover it all?
1. Chapter 1

"What's this?" Osamu Manabe looks at a series of picture thrown at the desk by his boss.

"This? This… Listen carefully boy… This… is your future."

"Ummm… Sir? How c…"

"Ssshhh. Say no more! I want a full article of this guy! Give me his hobbies, favorite places, things he does on his off days, hidden skills, secret lives, girlfriends, and scandals! EVERYTHING! Give me everything about this man and I'll raise your salary!"

"Are you serious sir?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Ummm… No…" Manabe answers hesitantly.

"You have my word, boy! Full coverage! 10 pages long! No less than that! Come see me in a month! Now, GO!"

Manabe walks out the door of his boss's office and aims for his own desk. His gaze can't be removed from the stack of photos, schedules, and files now on his hand, all related to one man. From all of the famous athletes out there, why, WHY, why on earth he has to write an article on this particular one? He sighs unconsciously.

Yamamoto Takeshi. Young, handsome, hot body, deadly smile, he's just the typical baseball player everyone could imagine. But Yamamoto Takeshi is surely not an ordinary one. Even though his skill is quite amazing, rumor has it that several world-known officials have offered him a position in their respective clubs with a ridiculous amount of salary, Yamamoto chose to play in a local small club in Namimori. Something an ordinary baseball player would never do. He only appears in national team when he's called. Otherwise, he just spends his day training on his local club field. Besides that his father runs a sushi restaurant in Namimori, nothing much is known for his private life. That's why; Yamamoto Takeshi has been the target of every sport/gossip reporters out there. Still, none of them can get valuable articles regarding him despite his sport career. Manabe has heard that some of his seniors have tried to stalk Yamamoto before, never has anyone succeeded. When they were asked why they failed, everybody refuse to answer. Basically, Yamamoto Takeshi's private life is untouchable.

So how, how can he, a fresh graduated newbie reporter, be able to uncover the daily life of a 24 years old baseball player who despite his seemingly approachable personality is almost a mystery? But, it's a rare opportunity though. His boss is a stingy person. A raise in salary may not come twice, so he better take this chance if he wants to improve his life. With that, Manabe prepares to fight.


	2. Chapter 2

Namimori station. The clock on platform 1 shows 09.00 am. It is a sunny morning when the train that Manabe took from Tokyo is ready to depart for its next stop. Manabe immediately steps down from the train and looks around. Well, apparently there's nothing to look at. It is a small station and it's not even hectic in rush hour like this.

After a few minutes of walk, he manages to find the flat in which he'll spend the next 30 days in this small town. It seems that his boss is dead serious about this Yamamoto article thing, considering that the room, located on the 3rd floor, is decent enough compared to the company standard. But when he see the window, everything's clear. From the window, Manabe can see the Namimori stadium on the far right and TakeSushi on the left, not so far from the flat itself. No wonder his boss is willing to spend a little money on it.

Enough thinking, now get to work. According to the note, Yamamoto Takeshi is scheduled to have practice in an hour. The place? Namimori stadium, and that's where he's heading to.

On the way to the stadium, Manabe can't help to think how mysterious this Yamamoto can be. The note his boss gave him clearly recorded every single activities of the baseball player for the next four weeks, except for several days off that goes without further explanations. Moreover, all the things listed are just regular things; most of them consist of daily training. So why there's not much known about this man? But he must admit that his boss's network is quite awesome to be able to get a list like this.

Brughh! Somebody has just hit him from behind that makes all of his belongings scattered on the ground. He was ready to explode when he heard a deep yet light toned voice, "Maa.. maa.. Gomen ne. I am late for practice, so I get a little hurry. Here are your stuffs, Sir."

Manabe looks up and finds out that the man he's planning to stalk is there, right in front of his eyes, grinning and apologizing. Not wanting to waste this precious chance he immediately says, "Y… Yamamoto Takeshi! I.. I.. am your big f... fan! C... can I have y... your sign?" _Perfect. Even the stutter was perfect._

"Umm... I kinda rush at this moment, but why don't you come to the stadium? We can talk later after I finish my practice." says Yamamoto.

"C… can I?"  
"Sure... Why not?" Yamamoto answers oh-so casually. "Kay. Gotta go now, see you in the stadium" then in just a few seconds, Yamamoto Takeshi is no longer within Manabe's view.

_What the… How come he disappeared so fast? It's just… Can human truly reach that speed? *sigh* Anyway, let's just move to the stadium. _Manabe add some note on his notebook:

_Yamamoto Takeshi is fast. What you see on the games might just a tiny bit of his running ability._


	3. Chapter 3

The training went well. Nothing is peculiar, though. From his seat, Manabe can see some fan girls screaming and doing their own things, some local reporters nearby, and of course the baseball team itself. Down there, on the field, he sees Yamamoto Takeshi saying farewell to his teammates. After signing a few things for some of the fan girls, he heads to where Manabe seated.

"Hi! Did you watch the training? Did you enjoy it?" Yamamoto smiled brightly.

"Umm. It's quite entertaining actually."

"Haha… I'm glad you like it. We're hoping to win regional tournament this year."

_Just regional tournament? Seriously? Won't it be a waste for your talent?_

"Oh, I almost forgot! What is it that you want me to sign?"

"Ahh… Please sign this." Manabe take one of the photos his boss gave him.

"All right, what should I write?"

"Umm, anything? Some quotes perhaps?"

"Quotes? Well… That's a tricky one. I've never good with words anyway. Oh, how about this?" then he writes something. "Okay, done! Here it is." He gives back the photo to Manabe.

Triiit… Triit… Yamamoto's cell phone rings.

"Hello."

And somehow the other side of the phone gives an extraordinary loud reply, so loud that Manabe can hear the word "EXTREME" even though Yamamoto didn't turn on the loud speaker.

"Maa… Maa… Okay, Onii-san. I'll be there soon."

Manabe watches this scene in silent. _Where will he go? Should I follow him?_

Yamamoto hangs up the phone. "Aaa… Too bad I must go now. Thank you for your support. I'll try my best to show a good performance. Oh, and don't forget to visit my father's restaurant, the name is Take Sushi. His sushi is always fresh. You'll like it for sure"

Manabe nods just because he doesn't know how to respond.

When the baseball player shadows disappeared from his sight, Manabe takes a closer look to what has been written on the photo.

_'__**Rely on your instinct, rather than logic**__.'_

_What's this? Is there ever any quote like this? Or it's just his principle of life? It sounds like him though. _Manabe turns the photo upside down searching for another word from the baseball player, but there's none. Somehow, he just has this strange feeling that his job will not gonna be easy.

Manabe's note:

_Yamamoto Takeshi is just so random._

A/N:

Thank you for everyone who have been kindly reading, reviewing, and following this story. ^_^

I am sorry if my English is not good enough, but I hope you can understand the story.

Anyway... I don't think this chapter is interesting enough, so I uploaded chapter 4 too.


	4. Chapter 4

Manabe decides to follow Yamamoto suggestion. Besides, it's already past afternoon and his stomach is yelling for food.

When he arrives in front of TakeSushi, two teenagers come out from the restaurant. A boy with sleepy eyes who wears a cow patterned shirt and a pretty Chinese girl. Strangely, they speak in a foreign language which Manabe assumes as Italian.

_Kids these days are surely something aren't they?_

Inside, there are only a few customers left since it's slightly past lunch time. He takes an empty seat a little bit on the right and made his order. Soon after, his order came, brought to him by the chef himself, Yamamoto's father.

"Hello. Here's your order. Anything else?" said Yamamoto Tsuyoshi in a similar cheerful voice, just like his son.

"Oh no, thank you, Sir."

"Your face is not familiar, kiddo. Are you new here?" Tsuyoshi opens the talk.

_Great! I might get useful information from his old man._

"Umm… Well, actually I come here because I'm a fan of your son. See this? I've just gotten his signs today." Manabe shows the photo to Tsuyoshi.

Tsuyoshi examines the photo for a while and then lets out a heavy sigh."I should've told him to study more. What kind of quote is this?" he seems to get a little frustrated by what he saw.

Manabe doesn't know that unlike his son, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi loves to chat. It's just a habit coming from his job as a restaurant owner. So, he spent almost half an hour listening to the old man's rant. Fortunately, the sushi is indeed tasted delicious and fresh. Unfortunately, nothing article worthy can be excerpted from Tsuyoshi's talk.

But, as he observes the room, a picture on the wall caught his attention. It is a picture of a much younger Yamamoto Takeshi in front of a building, which looks like a dojo –apparently named Asarigumi-, holding a bamboo sword.

"Excuse me, Yamamoto-san. Does your son happen to practice kendo?" says Manabe while pointing to the picture.

The older Yamamoto turns his back to the direction where Manabe pointed.

"Aaa… You mean that? It was taken a long time ago. I guess Takeshi was still in junior high back then. He never wielded a sword before, not even the bamboo one. But one day, he begged me to teach him sword art. Can you imagine how surprised am I?"

"You can do kendo as well, Yamamoto-san?" asks Manabe.

"Oho… I might not look like it kiddo, but I can do some tricks with sword."

"So, did you teach him?"

"Well, I did. Never thought that he'd be so natural with sword though."

_Aah… That explains why sometimes Yamamoto Takeshi grips his bat like he's holding a kendo sword._

"Come to think of it, it's been a while since the last time my son wields a bamboo sword."

"Err? What do you mean? Did he stop practicing?" Manabe is now full of curiosity.

"Oh, no. He still practices if that's what you mean. It's just... Nowadays he uses a real sword." Yamamoto Tsuyoshi says with a big grin full of pride reflected on his face.

_A… Real… Sword? Now, __**that's**__ interesting._

Manabe's note:

_Yamamoto Takeshi is not a mere baseball player. He's also a __swordsman__._


	5. Chapter 5

Few days have passed since the first time Manabe arrived in Namimori. Except for some quite surprising things he found out on his first day, there's nothing else he can take for his article. Yet, he continues to watch Yamamoto Takeshi movements, sometimes from close range, sometimes from afar, but always in the shadow. He doesn't want to create suspicion anyway. It will just make his job harder.

After some days with no significant result, Manabe can't help but to think whether his seniors failed because, frankly, there might be nothing interesting from Yamamoto Takeshi's life. So, Manabe takes a little detour from his usual routes and heads towards Namimori School. Perhaps, visiting a place where the baseball player used to study will give him a better insight.

When he arrives, the school is rather empty since it's not break time. He manages to enter the building after pretending that he had studied there before and just want to remember the good old times.

Inside, he find that there's a special section on the hallway where the school put on display the pictures of it most successful alumnus, one of them being Takeshi Yamamoto.

He proceeds to the library and once again gets the access for the yearbook collections by repeating the same white lie he told before. Perhaps, it's one of the benefits from having a bland innocent face.

_Now, now… Where is it? The yearbook when Yamamoto Takeshi graduated. Umm… He's about the same age as me, so it makes him graduated approximately… at year… Aha! Here it is!_

Manabe took his time analyzing the yearbook. There's nothing much, although something which is not significant enough, really caught his mind.

Apparently, Yamamoto Takeshi was already popular since his school time. On almost every picture, he was always surrounded by a bunch of other kids, either boys or girls. But when he did take a picture with only a few people, his companion will mostly be this two kids, a silver haired boy with a scowled face and a seemingly timid brown haired boy. Manabe searched for their names and successfully found it on the absence list.

Manabe's note:

_Try to find more about Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi._


	6. Chapter 6

Couple days later, Osamu Manabe can be seen walk through the street of Namimori. He just came back from his usual visit to Namimori stadium. Again, nothing's special today, which left him uneasy.

In the next two days, Yamamoto Takeshi's schedule will be empty for a week and Manabe has absolutely no idea how or where he can find the baseball player's whereabouts. Somehow, the thought of him helping his father in the sushi restaurant just doesn't seem right. It is more likely that he'll take some days off for vacation. A week is long enough, though. But, where to?

As Manabe lets his mind wander, unconsciously he walks to an abandoned alley not far from the Namimori shopping mall. He gets immensely drowned in his thought that he doesn't even hear some footsteps behind.

By the time he was aware, it was too late. Two men, both wear masks, are already surrounding him.

"Give me your wallet!" said the one holding a knife.

_Oh, s***. Robbery? In this middle of the day?_

"C… can we… talk about this?"

"Give. Me. Your. Wallet!" the man said again, now in a more demanding tone.

Poor Manabe, getting yelled like that only make him hold tighter to his bag, which the masked men assume as a signal to do it the hard way. Thump! A punch landed on Manabe's stomach, successfully made him drop his guard and his bag. Those men immediately grab his bag, leaving the poor Manabe lying on the ground, but not after taking his watch too.

Manabe can only watch it helplessly. He's never good in physical things but before he can scream for help, suddenly there's other person rush from his behind.

From the corner of his blurred eyes, he can see the guy easily beats down the robbers. A knife is not in par with katana anyways. Soon, those men were down, still alive though.

The guy immediately rushed back to Manabe.

"Hey, are you okay? Anything's hurt?" said Yamamoto Takeshi.

"Urgh, I'm fine. I just got a little bit dizzy"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah"

"Naah… You don't seem like your fine though. Let me take you to the clinic."

"No, no. It's alright."

"Umm, well okay then if you insist. Oh, here's your belonging." Yamamoto gives him his bag. "But I'm sorry I guess I accidentally hit your watch."

"No, no. That's fine, seriously. Thank you for helping me."

"Maa… No need to thank me. I was happen to be around, got some business to do. But next time you should avoid this area, it's rather dangerous here."

"Ahh… Okay. I don't know that."

"Well, I'll take my leave then."

"Oh… Yes, sure. Thanks again for helping me. It's amazing what you've done back there with that katana."

"Umm, what do you mean? I don't bring anything but my bat here."

He's right. After further observation, Manabe can see that Yamamoto Takeshi only brings a small backpack and a bat. He even still wears his baseball uniform.

"Maa… It seems you really gotta visit the clinic, you know."

"Oh… Okay, I guess I'll go then."

Manabe swears that he saw a katana back then.

* * *

Triit... Triit… Yamamoto Takeshi picks up his phone.

"Yamamoto's here."

"Herbivore… Haven't I warned you about doing your job seriously? So what was that? I saw something on the radar."

"Maa… Maa… Relax Hibari-san. It was just a minor trouble. They were just low class robbers. Nothing's to worry about. They haven't figured it out."

"Good for you. It's not ready yet. If there's ever a single person enter the construction site of Vongola's new base, you'll be the first person I'll bite to death."

Click.

That man never fails to give Yamamoto Takeshi goose bumps.


	7. Chapter 7

Later that night, Manabe decides to have sushi for dinner. Well, he must admit that he already took a favor for TakeSushi. The sushi is simple but it just so delicious that he turns to be a regular customer. That, and the fact that perhaps it is the remaining place where he can possibly get some information about what will Takeshi Yamamoto do in the next two days.

The restaurant is crowded with customers, some came with their cars. But one car looks more prominent than the others. Manabe recognizes the logo. It's an Italian car, a highly expensive one. Clearly, it' not mass produced since it can hardly be found, especially not **here**, in Namimori, Japan.

What Manabe sees next, when he enters the restaurant, has successfully made him think that the fortune goddess is taking his side. Inside, on the faraway table, a little on the back, sit Yamamoto Takeshi, still wearing his apron, seems like he's helping his father before, and his two companions; a silver haired man and an elegant lady with pink hair.

Manabe tries to recall the man's name. Ah, Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi's former classmate. But Manabe doesn't see a grumpy looking boy, instead he sees a handsome young man with some sort of charisma he wished he ever had. He's quite sure, if he were a girl, he'd be fallin' for this Gokudera Hayato.

And the lady! The lady is just the perfect definition of beauty. Still, Manabe can't stop thinking why she doesn't take her sunglasses off. Is she an actress? She's surely looks like one. But if he were her companion, he'd be okay with that too. If you have a pretty lady on your side, nobody would care about such a simple thing like sunglasses.

They seem like having a good time, although it's almost impossible for Manabe to hear the conversation in this crowd.

_Yamamoto Takeshi is surely something. How came he befriend this people? _

Their conversation ends not long after that. They says goodbye to the older Yamamoto, and the chef looks a little disappointed, telling them that they should come more often. Then, the younger Yamamoto escorts his guests outside. Soon, the sounds of the red Italian car can be heard leaving the restaurant.

_Oh, well. Guess my guess is right. It's Gokudera Hayato's car._

Not long after, Yamamoto Takeshi gets back inside and immediately helps his father preparing the order. One customer, apparently a loyal one, greets him.

"Oi, Takeshi. It's been a while seeing you here."

"Aah… Abe Ojisan! Long time no see. Are you doing well?"

"Yeah, yeah! I'm fine. You seem fine too. I heard that you'll leave for Italy again?"

Yamamoto Takeshi gives the man a big grin, "Can't help. Have some business to do there, Ojisan."

"Anyways, you know, you should bring her here more often." The old man Abe says to him.

In respond to this, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi immediately tells his son "See? I told you so. Especially now, that you got Hayato's approval."

"Takeshi, you're just so lucky to have a girl like her your fiancée." says Abe.

Yamamoto Takeshi's grin gets a lot wider.

Manabe's note:

_Yamamoto Takeshi is a damn lucky guy going to **Italy.**_

* * *

A/N:

Again, thank you for all who've been kindly reviewing, following and making the story their favorite. Your reviews mean so much to me and some of you gave really good advice.


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